Putin & Trump call for strenthening and expansion of nuclear weapons arsenals
A quarter-century after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump have, in remarkably similar language, called for the strengthening and expansion of their countries' respective nuclear weapons arsenals.
Politico reprinted Putin's words: "We need to strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces, especially with missile complexes that can reliably penetrate any existing and prospective missile defense systems," he said, according to multiple news reports.
The BBC has reprinted the full text from Trump's Tweet this morning: "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its sense regarding nukes".
For some hopeful and welcome relief from Putin's and Trump's fearful and fearsome proposals, check out this moving Counterpunch article by John LaForge of Nukewatch Wisconsin, "In Sentencing Radical Pacifists, Judge Miles Lord Assailed 'Worship of the Bomb.'"
More.
admin
Trump doubled down on his Tweet. As reported by Democracy Now!, Trump was quoted on MSNBC's "Morning Joe":
Joe Scarborough: "Mika asked the president-elect, while we had the opportunity, what his position was on—trying to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the nuclear arsenal. And the president-elect told you what?"
Mika Brzezinski: "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass."
Joe Scarborough: "And outlast them all."
Mika Brzezinski: "And outlast them all."
[Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, in an interview with Greenpeace USA executive director Annie Leonard about Trump's Strangelovian Tweet, pointed out "And, yes, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were sitting in their pajamas in front of a fire as they spoke." CommonDreams coverage added "...and slippers," complete with a photo.]
